The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper City, cops prepare for next step: negotiations Fitzgerald says department morale has never been lower By JUSTIN BERTON It was heated, expensive, close and hard fought. Now it's over. Sunnyvale residents rejected both measures S and T when they took to the polls Nov. 3. Measure T, the initiative that would have allowed the Sunnyvale Public Safety Officers Association to enter into binding arbitration, was defeated by 278 votes--14,126 voted against the measure, 13,848 in favor. The two sides had to wait six days before the final absentee ballots were counted, but even before then, the president of the officer's union had conceded defeat. "I don't know if we can make up 300 votes," Kelly Fitzgerald said two days after the election. Fitzgerald said a representative for the union was on hand at the county registrar's office when the absentee votes were counted to confirm the results. He added that the union has not decided if it will request a recount. Though the narrow defeat was a bitter pill for union members to swallow, at least one councilmember analyzed the residents' votes as a blessing in disguise. "The split vote was probably the best result we could've had," councilmember Jack Walker said. "An extreme in either way would have indicated a problem. An overwhelming defeat in Measure T would have indicated a lack of faith in public safety. And overwhelming support would have indicated a distrust in city government overall." The resounding defeat of the city's measure, Walker said, was the residents' way of saying, "We didn't want anything to do with it." Measure S was defeated by a 60 to 40 percent vote. Fitzgerald said the coupling effects of losing a close race, along with persisting tension between city administrators and the department's top brass, has had a negative impact on officers. "Morale has never been lower around here," he said. "I think the mayor and the councilmembers showed their true colors and showed how they feel about the public safety officers. That's an important consideration to take into account the next time we deal with them." When the two sides will sit down for contract negotiations is still up in the air. The officer's union contends city officials were offering a less broad type of arbitration--binding rights arbitration--before the election, and hopes the offer is still good. "The ball is in their court," Fitzgerald said. "We're assuming their position has not changed since the election. We are waiting for them to contact us." Mayor Jim Roberts said he planned to put the issue of binding rights arbitration on the council's legislative calendar before the next council meeting. The city's staff would research the issue and bring a report to council at a later meeting. "I am for it, as long as it does not significantly affect our budget," Roberts said. He added that he wants to pursue binding rights arbitration for all city employee unions, not just the public safety officers. Before the election, city manager Robert LaSala commented, "We'll resume negotiations when both sides believe it is appropriate to do so." Regardless of when contract negotiations resume, the mediators LaSala announced last month have already arrived. On the same day residents were casting their votes last week, union leaders, mediators and city management met for the first time. LaSala's office hired psychologist William Mathis and former Fremont police chief Robert Wasserman to help settle the contentious situation. Wasserman, LaSala noted, "has a reputation of being a 'cop's cop.' " Wasserman will meet with small groups to hear grievances from the public safety officers. "This will be a situation were they should be able to let their hair down, to share without attribution," LaSala said. The initial meeting with mediators was encouraging, Fitzgerald said. "I was very impressed with what was said." LaSala said Mathis will have the task of working within the top brass of the department to improve their relationship with rank and file. "Obviously, this philosophical difference over binding arbitration didn't turn up overnight," LaSala said. "This is rooted in the relationship between management and labor, and we need to get at its root. This way, we can engender the trust and confidence in both the public safety officers and the management of the department, and help build the relationship that has been strained and tested by this situation." The situation was heightened in the final week of the campaign when Roberts infuriated members of the officers' union by a quote published in THE SUN Oct. 23. Fitzgerald sent a letter to Roberts on behalf of the union, telling the mayor, "You have brought shame on yourself and the City Council as well as done irreparable damage to the relationship between the PSOA and City Hall." Roberts defended his position and said he was not planning a response to the letter. The mayor added that he received phone calls from supporters who "thanked me for taking a stand, and standing up for what I believe in." Long before the final results of the election came trickling in, it was clear the campaign was also the most expensive in the history of the city. The officer's union spent $140,000--almost three times the amount of funds raised for any campaign in Sunnyvale. Fitzgerald said $130,000 came from union dues collected from the officers. The Citizens for Local Control, led by Mayor Roberts, spent close to $15,000. Roberts attributed the narrow defeat of the officers' union measure to the war chest the union put up for the effort. "If you spend enough money, and distort the truth enough, you can get just about anything," he said. "This was like a round one for us," Fitzgerald said. "We still have a lot of battles with the city and the council. And to us, round one came to a draw." added that the union has not decided if it will request a recount. Though the narrow defeat was a bitter pill for union members to swallow, at least one councilmember analyzed the residents' votes as a blessing in disguise. "The split vote was probably the best result we could've had," councilmember Jack Walker said. "An extreme in either way would have indicated a problem. An overwhelming defeat in Measure T would have indicated a lack of faith in public safety. And overwhelming support would have indicated a distrust in city government overall." The resounding defeat of the city's measure, Walker said, was the residents' way of saying, "We didn't want anything to do with it." Measure S was defeated by a 60 to 40 percent vote. Fitzgerald said the coupling effects of losing a close race, along with persisting tension between city administrators and the department's top brass, has had a negative impact on officers. "Morale has never been lower around here," he said. "I think the mayor and the councilmembers showed their true colors and showed how they feel about the public safety officers. That's an important consideration to take into account the next time we deal with them." When the two sides will sit down for contract negotiations is still up in the air. The officers' union contends city officials were offering a less broad type of arbitration--binding rights arbitration--before the election, and hopes the offer is still good. "The ball is in their court," Fitzgerald said. "We're assuming their position has not changed since the election. We are waiting for them to contact us." Mayor Jim Roberts said he planned to put the issue of binding rights arbitration on the council's legislative calendar before the next council meeting. The city's staff would research the issue and bring a report to council at a later meeting. "I am for it, as long as it does not significantly affect our budget," Roberts said. He added that he wants to pursue binding rights arbitration for all city employee unions, not just the public safety officers. Before the election, city manager Robert LaSala commented, "We'll resume negotiations when both sides believe it is appropriate to do so." Regardless of when contract negotiations resume, the mediators LaSala announced last month have already arrived. On the same day residents were casting their votes last week, union leaders, mediators and city management met for the first time. LaSala's office hired psychologist William Mathis and former Fremont police chief Robert Wasserman to help settle the contentious situation. Wasserman, LaSala noted, "has a reputation of being a 'cop's cop.' " Wasserman will meet with small groups to hear grievances from the public safety officers. "This will be a situation where they should be able to let their hair down, to share without attribution," LaSala said. The initial meeting with mediators was encouraging, Fitzgerald said. "I was very impressed with what was said." LaSala said Mathis will have the task of working within the top brass of the department to improve their relationship with rank and file. "Obviously, this philosophical difference over binding arbitration didn't turn up overnight," LaSala said. "This is rooted in the relationship between management and labor, and we need to get at its root. This way, we can engender the trust and confidence in both the public safety officers and the management of the department, and help build the relationship that has been strained and tested by this situation." The situation was heightened in the final week of the campaign when Roberts infuriated members of the officers' union by a quote published in The Sun Oct. 23. Fitzgerald sent a letter to Roberts on behalf of the union, telling the mayor, "You have brought shame on yourself and the City Council as well as done irreparable damage to the relationship between the PSOA and City Hall." Roberts defended his position and said he was not planning a response to the letter. The mayor added that he received phone calls from supporters who "thanked me for taking a stand, and standing up for what I believe in." Long before the final results of the election came trickling in, it was clear the campaign was also the most expensive in the history of the city. The officers' union spent $140,000--almost three times the amount of funds raised for any campaign in Sunnyvale. Fitzgerald said $130,000 came from union dues collected from the officers. The Citizens for Local Control, led by Mayor Roberts, spent close to $15,000. Roberts attributed the narrow defeat of the officers' union measure to the war chest the union put up for the effort. "If you spend enough money, and distort the truth enough, you can get just about anything," he said. "This was like a round one for us," Fitzgerald said. "We still have a lot of battles with the city and the council. And to us, round one came to a draw." [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 11, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.